Today my mind wanders back to peace. PEACE? How do we find peace amidst all the unrest? We find it, by focusing on it, because whatever we choose to put our attention on, grows.
Needless to say, one of the best ways to combat stress is through, …yes, I am going to say it again….”diet and exercise”. Less caffeine, for example is often all you need to calm your racing heart. Last week, I spent a couple of days astonished at how high my heart rate was and cutting back on the caffeine really helped! Any cardio exercise will help burn off some extra adrenaline, and of course make us sleep better. Personally, I find weight lifting empowering and if you pick one or two muscle groups a day, it doesn’t consume much time. Yoga calms our bodies and meditation calms the endless monkey chatter in our brains. While there are endless meditations available on the net, you can just try closing your eyes and visualizing a place that brings you peace. See it with all it’s colors and detail, smell it, hear it, taste it and feel it. Just a few minutes and your nervous system will thank you for the nudge back to normalcy.
Worrying is not a part of your DNA and you don’t inherit it. Worrying is an active choice, like brushing your teeth. When we had my in-laws hunkering down with us for a hurricane that the news reported “was going to blow off every roof in south Florida,” our son, Kyle, who lives out in the gulf of Mexico, suggested so wisely, we turn off the news and find a comedy we could all enjoy. We streamed Cheers for hours and while it was initially hard to disconnect from the news of that storm (see, I now can’t even recall which one) we actually forgot about life for a while and simply laughed! The storm came hard and left quickly. No roofs were lost, thankfully, and we were all just fine. If I never thanked you for that advice, Kyle, I am now!
Many years ago, I read an editorial that impacted me like no other. It was written by a Holocaust survivor and it was about worry. He said the last time he really worried about anything was his fear of being taken to the camps. The next day, he was. His biggest regret was wasting that last night of freedom on something that he had absolutely no control over. His words have never left me.
Our diet is not just about what we eat. It’s about who we spend our time with, what stimulation we choose to bring in, etc. While it’s always good to try and be informed, there is so much going on around us right now and it does us no good to spend our time in fear. Fear is dangerous. Some of what we are hearing and reading may be true and much may not be. Worrying, however, doesn’t make anything better, it just makes us unhealthy!
Since my brain always goes to music for comfort and happiness, I will close with the line from a Sublime song that was playing in my head when I got out of bed, this morning.
“Life’s too short so love the one you got because you might get run over and your might get shot!”
Which ALWAYS brings me back to LOVE because lovin’ is what I got and always my wish for you.